


Bridging The Gap

by Dreamin



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 06:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17893043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/pseuds/Dreamin
Summary: Irene makes a request of Mycroft in a most unusual location.





	Bridging The Gap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afteriwake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/gifts).



> Let's call this a hard T for naughtiness. ;)

_Meet me at the naughty bridge tomorrow at 1._

Mycroft rolled his eyes once more at the note he’d received yesterday. The woman he secretly admired was back in London and back to selling secrets, this time under the guise of an American opera singer. He’d gone to a performance with his parents, expecting to be bored out of his mind once again, when he suspected that the prima donna was a person very familiar to him.

His suspicion was confirmed when an usher slipped him the note during intermission. The handwriting was unmistakably Irene’s.

_So here I am, surrounded by giggling tourists taking photos of what amounts to nothing more than sunlight shining through the railing’s trefoils. The fact that the shapes are anatomical is, most likely, a coincidence instead of by design._

“And here I thought you weren’t going to show,” a familiar voice purred behind him.

He turned to raise an eyebrow at her. “Could you have picked a less-crowded meeting spot, Ms. Adler?”

She rolled her eyes as she took his arm and led him across the bridge at a leisurely pace. “Safety in numbers, hiding in plain sight, whatever you want to call it, we’re not as noticeable here.”

“There are crowded tourist places all over London. Why Westminster Bridge?”

Irene smirked. “Think of it as my way of saying I cocked up last time.”

“How, exactly?”

“I went after the wrong Holmes brother.”

Something inside of him let out a painful sigh but he ignored it. “Yes, Sherlock’s not the one who holds a minor position in the British Government.” He gently, deliberately removed her hand from his arm. “I’m afraid I’m out of secrets to sell, Ms. Adler.”

“Who said anything about secrets?” she asked, grinning, as she took his arm again. “I need someone who can challenge me intellectually, someone I have to work hard to please.” She stood on her tiptoes to murmur in his ear, “Someone I want to climb like a tree.”

Mycroft could feel his ears burning but he tried not to let his attraction show on his face. “I … see. Ms. Adler-”

“Irene.”

“Irene, I cannot … pursue a relationship with someone who sells government secrets.”

She waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m done with government secrets, too dangerous. Now it’s more personal scandals.”

“I see – you want to get some dirt on me you can sell to the highest-paying tabloid.”

Irene rolled her eyes. “Is it so hard to believe I’m interested in you?”

“After everything that’s happened? Yes.”

“You’re just going to have to trust me, Mycroft. I swear on-” she looked down at the seemingly endless row of phalluses then back up at him, grinning, “on this bridge of cocks that I am sincerely, sexually, and romantically interested in you, Wentworth Mycroft Byron Holmes. The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

He stared at her, gauging her sincerity in her eyes, the pulse visible in her neck, and the slightly trembling hand he took in his own. “I … suppose I could be persuaded to hear you out. In a more private setting, that is.”

She grinned at him. “I know just the place.”

By the time the sun rose the next morning, Mycroft was thoroughly persuaded, not to mention happily exhausted.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, the Westminster Bridge really does put on an interesting little light show at certain times of the year. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/tourists-cant-enough-x-rated-9816744


End file.
